Marion Ravenwood: "You're not the man I knew ten years ago."
Henry "Indiana" Jones: "It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage."
That was just one of many fun exchanges to be found in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the highly entertaining and thrillingly 1981 pic that was purposefully designed as escapist homage to bygone Saturday morning matinees by director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas. The ironic thing, taking into account the reason for this review, is that when star Harrison Ford uttered that line, brought the fedora back into fashion, and turned his character into a movie and cultural icon, he was just 39 years of age.
In the interim, he's starred in a plethora of movies (including a less enthusiastically received "Indy" prequel and a far better sequel) and added another 27 years to his well-weathered face and bod. All of which begs the question about whether he and audiences worldwide are prepared for the world famous movie archaeologist to do the adventure thing again, this time on the downhill slope of his mid 60s.
The answer, I imagine, is going to be a resounding yes. And while much of that stems from Ford's return in the part, there's also the fact that Spielberg and Lucas have also reprised their respective roles. The result is a fairly entertaining but somewhat flawed piece of entertainment that tries to (and often succeeds at) recapturing the movie magic that made the first flick immensely popular.
Accordingly (and like most any sequel), there's the return of favorite characters (including Karen Allen reprising her role as Marion), over the top stunts and fight sequences, that familiar and adventurous score from John Williams, and a plot (penned by David Koepp) that's quite derivative of that from the first film.
But just as Spielberg and Lucas wanted to recapture the cliffhanger serials from the 1940s with the first flick, they seem desirous of hitting just about every bit of movie icons and elements from the 1950s. That's driven home at the very start, with Elvis' "Hound Dog" playing on the soundtrack as some young whipper-snappers in a vintage convertible egg on another vehicle to race.
That immediately segues into 1950s era military operations, Russians, a fake mannequin town for hydrogen bomb testing, Shia LeBeouf riding in on a motorcycle looking like Marlon Brando from "The Wild One," and, of all things, a brief Tarzan type moment. All of which leads into another staple from that movie era, aliens from outer space.
Yes, I know the pics have always been over the top and "out there" (such as the Nazis being after the supernatural powers of the Ark of the Covenant in the first flick, the hand into the chest bit in the second, and the Holy Grail and ancient knight parts of the third).
And yes, the outer space part here stems from the huge ground drawings that only make sense when viewed from a high altitude which wasn't possible thousands of years ago unless one happened to be flying over in a spaceship. Even so, the film goes too far regarding such matters in this film's third act, all of which proves Spielberg has yet to shake his fascination with aliens (think "E.T." "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "War of the Worlds," etc.).
All of that said, the film is still fairly entertaining, with some fun action set pieces and Ford's ability to milk his iconic character for everything it's worth. While not going as far as Clint Eastwood did with "In the Line of Fire" in showing his age (such as huffing and puffing while running alongside presidential limos), there are various comments pointing out Indy's years, as well as some less than perfectly completed physical efforts (although that also happened in the earlier films and was what helped make the character so endearing to viewers of all ages).
With that age in consideration, the powers that be would obviously love to continue this franchise, but what to do about Ford's age? Well, much like Schwarzenegger acknowledged the up and coming stardom of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson back in "The Rundown" (although the latter has yet to match his predecessor's enormous success as an action star), the plot has obviously been designed to introduce a possible replacement.
Alas, River Phoenix, who played young Indy in the prologue of "Last Crusade" so well, can't do it because he's watching from the great movie house up in the sky. So, we're left with Shia LaBeouf, the recent star of decent to big-sized hits such as "Disturbia" and "Transformers."
Here, he plays the young Brando-esque character who teams up with Indy on his latest journey. There's a revelation later in the film that won't likely surprise many viewers, and even a literal and figurative passing of the hat, uh, fedora, at the end of the pic (although there's an "I'm not yet done" twist that concludes that). The jury is still out regarding whether LeBeouf can handle the franchise in solo mode, but only time will tell.
Returning from the first film is Allen, and while her and Ford's characters immediately resume their comedic/romantic bickering, the chemistry isn't quite as fun or red hot as it was the first time around. Cate Blanchett appears as the head villain and seems to have learned her Russian accent from watching "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show," Ray Winstone plays a double agent (without enough twists to make the characters as much fun as possible), and John Hurt is present as the character most affected by the titular object.
And basically, for all of the critical analysis, that's what the flick is all about: Various adventures, action, and close calls, all while our hero does the archaeological thing (albeit, once again trying to return the main object rather than collect it for a museum).
Spielberg and company certainly know how to push the pedal to the metal in terms of the action sequences and over the top stunts. It's just too bad that much of that outnumbers the much needed downtime and staid drama, the plot feels derivative and recycled (especially from the original pic), and that the characters -- especially Ford's -- feel a bit worn.
It's true, it's not the age, but the mileage that counts, but perhaps this character and accompany vehicle are showing signs of nearing the end of their warranty. Fairly fun and certainly entertaining, but sometimes too outrageous and certainly not as engaging as the first or third installments of the original set, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" rates as a 6 out of 10.
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